In this article we will look for the PowerShell Scripts to export “Alternate Access Mapping (AAMs)” Settings from source SharePoint Farm. This information will be helpful to track all the “AAMs” defined in SharePoint Farm.

In Step 1 we will add the PowerShell Snapin to PowerShell Script as usual

In Step 2 we define a function and initiate the export CSV file with Column Headers. For this demo I am exporting a few important properties like “Incoming Url, Zone, Public Url” but you may query all possible properties as you deemed fit

In Step 3 we execute the “Get-SPAlternateURL” cmdlet to query the required properties

In Step 4 we loop through the properties collection for all AAM Mapping and list out the queried properties for each mapping

In Step 5 we add the content of properties for each of the AAM Mapping to the CSV file

In Step 6 we will set the settings file path and call the function to export the AAM Mappings

Once this script get executed successfully, it will export the AAM Mappings in a CSV File as shown below in Step 7

In this article we will discuss implementing “Alternate Access Mapping” or commonly known as “AAM” in SharePoint 2016.

If you are not aware of AAM or you have some misconceptions about it, I would highly recommend you to read through an excellent blog Alternate Access Mappings (AAMs) *Explained by “Brain Pendergrass” from Microsoft and would like to thank him for such an awesome blog to make me understand this concept in depth.

This article will focus on guided steps to configure AAM in SharePoint 2016 and we won’t discuss AAM as a concept.

Create New Web Application

Step 1: To start the demo let go to SharePoint Central Admin Site and click on “Manage Web Applications” as shown below-

I am creating a new Web Application for demo purpose. In real environments we can use any existing Web Application to perform these steps.

If operation completed successfully we can see popup window show success message

We can see this new Host added to the existing list

Add/Update IIS Bindings

Step 6: Add “IIS” Bindings

Now we have to add IIS bindings for the new Host. Search for “IIS” and select “Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager”

Select the Web Application that we have created in above steps from the “Connections” Panel on the left under “Sites” node

Click on “Bindings…” on the right to Add/Edit Web Application Bindings

In the “Site Bindings” screen select the default binding and click “Edit”

In the “Edit Site Binding” screen enter Host Name value and this should match the entry that we have created earlier in DNS

Click OK

Once saved the existing binding will look like as shown below-

Configure Alternate Access Mappings Using Central Admin

Step 7: Configure Alternate Access Mappings (From Central Admin)

Go To Central Admin -> “Application Management”

Under Web Applications Click “Configure alternate access mappings”

Click “Edit Public URLs”

In the “Edit Public Zone URLs” Screen and enter “Default Zone” URL with “Host Name” configured earlier as shown below.

Click “Save” once you entered the default Zone URL to save the data.

Now try accessing SharePoint Web Application using Public Zone URL and if the configuration goes well, the access will be granted to you

Test Alternate Access Mappings

Configure Another Mapping

Step 8: Repeat Step 5 to add another DNS entry to add a new Host Name

Step 9: Repeat Step 6 to Add Web Application Bindings

Configure Alternate Access Mappings Using PowerShell

Step 10: Configure Alternate Access Mappings (Using PowerShell)

Now we will add this new Host Name to the default zone for the web application

Launch SharePoint 2016 Management Shell

“New-SPAlternateURL” cmdlet gives us option to add new Alternate URLs to the required zone for web application

This cmdlet take following parameters

New Alternate URL – URL that you need to register as alternate URL

Web Application Path – URL that represent Web Application

Zone – Represents a zone that you need this alternate URL to add to

Once this command executes successfully we can a new Alternate Access Mapping added to the list

Test Alternate Access Mapping

Now if try to access this web application using this new mapping it still be translated to the same Public URL for the Web Application.

By following above steps we can enable a web application that receives the request from an internal URL in one of the five authenticated zones to return pages that contain links to the public URL for the zone